• New Council Meeting on Quadra McKenzie Plan: February 24, 2025.
• The public input portion of the Special Council Meeting on February 11th, 2025, has now closed. The QMP item will be further considered at the February 24th, 2025 Council meeting, where staff will present the Quadra McKenzie Plan Phase 3 Engagement Summary, and Council will provide direction on project next steps.
The Council meeting agenda and report will be posted for viewing on the Council Meeting Schedule page on Thursday, February 20, prior to the meeting. The staff report can be found on the Saanich website.
SaveOurSaanich will be in attendance at this meeting. We encourage other residents to attend, as we find out Saanich Council’s next steps.
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• See Globe & Mail article Friday, February 7, 2025
“Saanich Feels Growing Pains: Residents Gear Up for a Fight”
• See Times Colonist article Saturday, February 8, 2025
“Quadra-McKenzie plan to be scaled back”
(Both articles are on our ‘Press and Community Support’ page)
SaveOurSaanich.com was interviewed on CFAX radio
at 7:20am on Tuesday February 11.
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On Tuesday, February 11, 2025 there was a Meeting at Saanich Municipal Hall to allow residents to speak to Saanich Council about the Quadra Mckenzie Plan.
• It was very well-attended, with over 70 registered speakers; each person allowed 3 minutes to express their views.
• Seven representatives of Save Our Saanich spoke on topics covering: density; natural area and birds; how New Zealand planning is doing a better job of infill in residential areas; how Saanich’s ‘consultation’ can be improved; preserving Saanich’s Old growth Garry oak urban forest; the state of current rentals; and more.
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Additionally, Save Our Saanich’s online PETITION was presented to Council.
It had been printed and bound, and one copy presented to each member of Saanich council; so they had time to read it before their deliberations. Each comment that was included was forwarded in the bound copy, as were the 4,001 signatures, to date, (up to Wednesday February 5).
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(As of February 17, 2025, we have 4,326 signatures, and more comments!)
The extra signatures and comments will be forwarded to Saanich Council members. Please sign the Petition on our Home Page.
• The Cover of the Petition was designed with quotations taken from the comments made by Saanich residents.

Thank you for your support!
• Residents of Saanich have to keep up the pressure
to ensure our concerns are heard by Council, and to make sure
actual consultation will take place before this Plan proceeds.
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• January 29: Old Growth Garry Oak Forest in Saanich:
Our Urban Forest

From Mount Douglas/PKOLS to Christmas Hill (and in other Saanich neighbourhoods); are swaths of Garry oak trees – comprising part of the
5% of the endangered Garry oak ecosystem left in all of British Columbia. Garry oaks are extremely slow growing, and their complex ecosystems – among the rarest in the province – support 104 species of birds; 33 mammal species; 7 reptile species; and 7 amphibians. Over 800 insect species, including butterflies, are directly associated with Garry oak trees; as are rare wildflowers, including camas, shooting stars and Erythroniums.



For more on Garry oak ecosystems, please read this brochure from the B.C. Government: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/plants-animals-and-ecosystems/conservation-data-centre/publications/erickson_garry_oak.pdf
And this one, from the Garry Oaks Ecosystems Recovery Team: https://goert.ca/about/what-are-geo
SaveOurSaanich.com believes this rare, endangered Garry oak ecosystem should not be sacrificed in the name of density and road widening.
Any planning should recognize the rarity of the existing Garry oak tree canopy – Saanich’s real Urban Forest – and make every effort to preserve it,
as part of the Quadra McKenzie Plan.
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• January 28: Our Petition now has 3,811 signatures – and more thoughtful comments! Nearly 600 signatures in six days!
• January 22: Our Petition now has 3,242 signatures – and many thoughtful comments. We continue to gather signatures. See our Home Page.

• January 21 and 22: A supporter has been spotted at the Quadra and McKenzie intersection, waving a sign, protesting the Quadra McKenzie Plan. He was getting lots of supportive honks and ‘thumbs-up’ from passers-by and drivers. He urges you to email the Mayor at: [email protected]

• On January 16, responding to a bylaw complaint, we took our Save Our Saanich sign down from where it stood on Quadra Street, letting people know Saanich was proposing 12-storey zoning for that site.
• On January 15, Saanich News printed a front-page interview with two members of Save Our Saanich’s steering committee:
• On January 11, Save Our Saanich met with Councillors Zac DeVries and Karen Harper, and discussed the Plan. Save Our Saanich passed on the many concerns of residents who we had met while canvassing.
• On January 8, 2025, Victoria News printed a long interview with two of Save Our Saanich’s steering committee. This interview is also scheduled to be printed in the Saanich News on January 15.
• On January 8, 2025 Save Our Saanich has taken out a full-page ad in the Saanich News. (See below)
• On January 7, 2025 Save Our Saanich met again with Councillor Susan Brice, to discuss ramifications of the Plan, and how it will affect Saanich neighbourhoods.
• On January 7, 2025, we reached 2,500 signatures (and many comments) on our online Petition! The Petition will continue as long as we can, before Saanich Council considers the Quadra McKenzie Plan at a Council Meeting in February. (Date to be announced). We will announce that date on the Website.
• January 8, 2025: Full-page ad in the Saanich News:


• In December 2024, Save Our Saanich added this sign on Quadra Street, on a block of 27 privately-owned properties (all currently zoned single-family) on the north side of Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary, which the Quadra McKenzie Plan has designated – without any consultation with owners – as a ‘Special Zone’, allowing buildings as tall as 12-storeys (or more).
• This is one of THREE ‘Special Zones’ along Quadra Street with the same ’12-storey’ designations.
• The Second 12-storey ‘Special Area’ backs up against the boundary of Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary on the west side of Quadra Street, including properties on Nicholson Street and Eagle Rock Terrace. (This is across Quadra Street from another planned 12-storey building, with plans already drawn up.)
• The Third 12-storey ‘Special Area’, further south, off Lodge Avenue, completely rings an important small park (Leeds Park), which drains through a wetland into Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary.
• How does this make sense? What sort of ‘Twenty-year Plan’ devastates Nature Sanctuaries in this day and age?
Any major development in these areas – including any building higher than tree height – would wreak similar damage.
• Save Our Saanich has met with Mayor Murdock and Councillors Colin Plant, Susan Brice, Zac DeVries, Mena Westhaver, and Judy Brownoff.
• We had a second meeting with Susan Brice in January.
• Save Our Saanich met with Councillor Zac DeVries and with Councillor Karen Harper.
• Save Our Saanich met with Councillor Teale Phelps Bondaroff in January.
• Volunteers from Save Our Saanich are out canvassing neighbourhoods within the Quadra McKenzie Plan Area. They are meeting residents, handing out flyers showing the maps in the Quadra McKenzie Plan, and explaining how their neighbourhoods might change over the next few years.
Most residents are appalled with this Plan. Others are angry or in tears. We have had many offers to help, which are appreciated. Thank you.
• Our deep concerns have been passed on. But we need more voices.
• Please sign the PETITION on our Home Page and leave your comments and reaction to the Plan.
• Even more importantly, please email Mayor Murdock and each councillor individually and let them know how you feel. Their email addresses are listed on our Home page.
• Also email Lana Popham, MLA for Saanich South; and Premier David Eby; as the B.C. NDP government is the reason municipalities are having to – and trying to – increase densities within their boundaries.
Their email addresses are also listed on our Home page.
Also:
• November 26, 2025: NOTE: SAANICH HAS NOW CLOSED THE Quadra McKenzie Plan SURVEY as of November 26.
Save Our Saanich.
Please Sign the Petition on the Home Page.
Contact: [email protected]
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We acknowledge that the District of Saanich lies within the territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples represented by the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations and the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples represented by the W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip), BOḰEĆEN (Pauquachin), SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout), W̱SIḴEM (Tseycum) and MÁLEXEȽ (Malahat) Nations.